Shock of the day

Today was pretty normal except for one thing. I got a shock early this morning. My friend's sister's ex-boyfriend passed away recently. They had dated for a few months and just broken up about two weeks ago.

I don't know the details other than he had diabetes and was a pretty private person. Apparently he had some set backs in his health over the past week and hadn't really brought it up. My friend's sister went to check on him last night or this morning because no one had heard from him in a while. He didn't answer the door so she called the sheriff's department to open it up. I'm assuming she was still there when they found him. I can't remotely imagine what she's going through right now.

I met this guy about three weeks ago, briefly at a spring football game at FSU. I had no idea he had severe health problems. He was also 27, my age.

I have known people who've died before but it was always expected. I wouldn't say I "knew" this person but it was still a surprise.

My day has been good but every now and then my mind drifts to this young man and his family and my friend's sister. Apparently he was not real communicative with his family either.

I'm not going to go into the whole "life is short" or "make sure you tell your family you love them" speeches. We've heard that countless times. This is just the one event/story that has stuck with me today. It's given me quite a bit to think about and consider.

Cupcakes!

At the end of the day my brother sends me a link to a place he wants to visit when we go to Chicago, Molly's Cupcakes. Looking at the menu throws a craving on me like no other for a cupcake. It was major.

I never think about it but I love cupcakes. Sure it's like a regular cake but better. It's really just the right amount and if you have one more you won't be considered a pig. At least I don't consider it to be an act of gluttony. Now if you went for a second piece of cake, forget about it.

I got off work right at five and headed straight for the one place I knew I could get an above average cupcake, The Cake Shop. I was under the gun here. They close at 5:30 and since I had downtown traffic I knew this was a close to impossible mission. With the windows rolled down and the music blaring I navigated my way through the bumper to bumper traffic. I made touchdown at exactly 5:25 p.m. I got my cupcake, well two.

Then I remembered I needed milk. So a quick stop at the grocery store and I had it. I told myself I should eat dinner first and then I could indulge. Well after getting dinner started, unloading the dishwasher, making a sandwich for tomorrow and talking to my brother on the phone, I had to have one. I did and it was breathtaking. As a result I didn't eat much of my spaghetti which is ok because I don't really like spaghetti. It's just something easy to make and there's usually enough for leftovers.

I was going to write about playing golf on Saturday. But who wants to hear about how I had a great time and still shot a 124? I'd rather hear the story about the guy who raced time and got a cupcake.

Quick hits

I've slacked off on blogging. No particular reason. I have stuff to blog about just didn't feel like it. So here's some quick hits of what's been going on.

This Legislative Session has been weird. Not too many late nights. I've still been busy during the day. It also seems to be going by fast. It might be that everyone if focusing on the budget and not other issues.

I've been out to an actual club a few times now. It's not something I did in college. I have had some fun experiences and some not so fun experiences. Fun experience: random girl buying me a shot for no reason- twice! Not so fun experience: Driving two really drunk friends home. Both of who could barely walk straight and are twice my size. That was a new experience for them too.

I'm planning on taking a vacation to Chicago in May with my brother and his girlfriend. I'm looking forward to it. We've got our hotel and flight reservations already set.

I got excited about the Master's tournament this past weekend so I went to the driving range twice. I'm playing golf with some friends this Saturday.

Out of sheer boredom this week I made a twitter site. It's been fun though.

This weekend is the Tallahassee Film Festival. I plan to kill a lot of time there this weekend.

It's only Tuesday!

Tuesday is typically a throw away day. But I'm having a great time. The work day was typical. I pulled my weight when I had to.

My friend called me to go have Mexican food for dinner. Which I was already thinking about. We tried a place that was under new ownership. It was good but just like every other Mexican place in town. Another friend met us there. It was good times.

We're back at my place just the one friend and I. I have to go to work tomorrow but I'm already drinking more than I should. I'm having a good time. We're watching Sideways which is about wine and an indie film but it's totally a guy movie. I relate to the main character, Miles. It feels like a Friday. But it's not. Anyways, I'm having fun. I'm also looking forward to work tomorrow. The one day of the week I should be there.

Get Lost!

One of the best shows on television returns tonight. That's right, Lost is back. We get two hours of weirdness. Three if you count the recap special which I have on as background noise.

If you don't remember what's happened the past four seasons you can also read this recap: http://jgoat.blogspot.com/2009/01/lost-023-refresher-updated.html.

I'm No Gamer

The past few days I've been playing some video games. Not many just a few. Let me start by saying that while I have been known to play until my brain turns to jelly and my thumbs go numb I am not what you call a video game expert.

I own a Wii and only 3 games, Guitar Hero 3, Guitar Hero World Tour and Wii Sports. Sadly I don't play as much as I like. I get distracted by other things. Plus I've beaten both Guitar Heroes and well those and the Wii sports are more fun to play with other people. Also as I get older I have to be in the mood to play. I'll get in a video game mood and play for about a week. After that I'm through.

This weekend I got the chance to play some games at my friend, Trey's house. He bought a used PS2 and has numerous games. Plus he has four controllers which means good times. Saturday I played Marvel Ultimate Alliance with Trey, his wife and their nephew. That was a lot of fun. I've been wanting to play that game for a long time now. It was cool that we got to each be a different hero with different abilities. Plus it has all sort of cool things right from the comics, that makes it even that much more fun for a geek like me. Sunday I went back over and played some Tekken Tag and Twisted Metal. Both were fun. I realized video games are more fun when you play with others. Usually people that are about as good as you are better. I've played with people who are experts and well the fun runs out quickly.

Last night at another friends house I played some Grand Theft Auto 4 which is fun and then I played Conan the Barbarian. I believe GTA was on PS3 and Conan was for Xbox 360. Conan isn't a great game but it's fun. It's pretty simple. All you do is hack people up and save half naked women. What's not to like? Also my friend was playing some rock music in the background that went well with the action. In particular Here I Go Again by White Snake and Carry on Wayward Son by Kansas are great Conan songs if you know anything about Conan.

Today I haven't done much. I rented Iron Man for my Wii. It's pretty cool and easy which is good for me. I'll probably play some more after I finish this post. There wasn't much of a point except to talk about my experience with video games.

Hump day

It's been a while since I last posted. I don't want to drop the ball on this thing like I did last time. I just haven't felt like blogging.

The past few weeks have really crept by. This week has gone by much quicker. At the Legislature we're at the end of a depressing special session (budget cuts). The committee I work for had a meeting today. It went surprisingly well. I'm always tired after committee meetings though. I think it's because I'm sitting around Senators who do whatever they want and the audience is mostly lobbyist who also do what they want so I have to be alert for an hour or two. Then I have to go back to my office and report out all of the details of the meeting, mostly data entry type stuff but it requires detail. Even after doing this for almost three years it's still exhausting.

After work I met my parents at Outback. It had been a while since I've been there. The last few times I've been it hadn't been great but tonight was good. Must've been because I was tired and hungry. I also had a Foster's beer for the first time. It was pretty good. Similar to a Miller or a Bud.

The rest of my week has been going ok. I've seen three good movies three days in a row. Sunday I watched Almost Famous. It had been a while since I've seen it. It's still one of my all time favorite movies. Monday I saw Slumdog Millionaire. That is a terrific film. It has such a great story to it. Last night I saw Gran Torino. That was excellent was well. It probably was one of my favorite Clint Eastwood films.